Having not written anything here for a couple of years I felt compelled to write somewhere about the last week.
Thursday
One week ago I picked my boyfriend up from work and he was complaining of severe chest pain. He'd had the same before and been to the hospital and been told it was pleurisy and given Naproxen. This time the pain was bad but not as bad as before. we got home and he went out to his scuba diving club where he goes each Thursday night. he arrived home earlier than usual that night, complaining of the same pain, which had by this point worsened. He took some pain relief and I went to bed while he stayed up. In the middle of the night I woke to hear him groaning with pain, he went downstairs and was crying and groaning with the pain, He couldn't sit or lie down, and could get some slight relief by kneeling on all fours but could only do this for short stretches of time. I kept offering to take him to hospital but he thought the pain would pass. He still had one Naproxen tablet left which he took and this alleviated the pain to the point that I was then able to get him to the hospital - at this point it was 3am Friday morning.
Friday
We arrived at the hospital at about 3.30am and thankfully A&E was pretty empty (unusual for a British hospital), we were therefore seen quite quickly by a triage nurse who did an ECG, took his BP and gave him some paracetemol. The ECG and BP seemed clear so he spoke to the doctor who advised the'd take a blood test and do a chest x-ray, which we did. We then spoke with the doctor who told us that he would wait for the x-ray and blood test but that it seemed like a non emergency and something that should be followed up with a GP. That changed about an hour later when he returned with blood test results which showed 'sky-high' levels of D-Dimer in his blood. D-Dimer is a protein which can be found in the blood indicating the presence of a blood clot or a blood clot being broke down. He explained then that there was a possibility of blood lots on his lungs but he'd need a scan to confirm this. They injected him in the stomach with an anticoagulent in case it was a clot-they said it'd do no damage if it wasn't one. They sent us home and said we'd hear from the hospital soon to arrange this. We got home at 6am and went straight to sleep. Thankfully by this point the pain relief had helped him and he was able to lie down.
We slept for a couple of hours and were woken at 8.30 by the hospital phoning and asking him to come in at 10am. We arrived at 10am and went to the ambulatory care unit. they sent him for a scan and then we came back and waited to see the Doctor. When we finally went in to see the Doctor, I sat behind the Doctor as he sat next to him. He asked a lot of questions and was taking a really thorough case history and the whole time I could see the Doctor's computer screen and could see the scan on the screen with several clots. I felt sick particularly watching him sat there oblivious, probably expecting to be told the scan was clear. Eventually he told him the scan results- they'd found several clots on his lungs and he needed immediate treatment. He was prescribed Dalterparin injections daily for 5 days as well as Warfarin for at least 6 months, and some pain relief- Paracetemol and codeine. We collected the prescriptions and went back to be shown how to do the injections and home we went again.
I left him at this point quite pain free and so went to work for a few hours- I didn't mention anything to anyone at work and acted normal, still unable to fully process what had happened. I arrived home several hours later to find him in slightly more pain than I'd left him in but nothing like what he'd been in the night before. I said I was going to bed for an hour having not slept the night before and went upstairs. About half an hour later I was aware of sound downstairs so went down to see what was happening. He was doubled up in pain again, moaning, crying, and in a terrible terrible state. I phoned NHS direct who said to take him back to hospital so I took him To A&E this time at a different hospital which was slightly closer. This time A&E was very busy- it was a Friday night! However we got triaged by a nurse straight away who gave us a slip of paper saying a big '1' on it and 'chest pain, possible PE'. This seemed to mean we fastracked the queue significantly and so the wait wasn't too bad. They gave him some IV Morphine which relieved the pain considerably then sent us home saying the pain relief we had should be enough from there.
He tried to come to bed that night but still couldn't lie down so he slept sitting up on the sofa while I went to bed (getting up several times to check on him).
Saturday
By Saturday we seemed in a different place entirely and I was starting to feel positive that the worse had passed, we pottered around for the morning, he was in pain but finding it bearable. I went to the shops- we had hardly eaten since this all started, and he watched tv. He was taking his pain relief regularly and that seemed to keep a lid on it. By the afternoon at about 2pm things changed and out of the blue he became overcome by horrendous pain. He started screaming, swearing, turned bright red, was banging the wall, throwing things around, crying, his chest was visibly spasming, he ripped his top clean off his chest and was in a terrible terrible state. He couldn't speak to answer questions but eventually told me to call 999. I phoned and the lady on the phone said she would send an ambulance straight out. A first responder arrived within about 20 minutes and gave him some oxygen as his sats were 85, this helped a little bit but it wasn't until the paramedic came about 10 minutes after and gave him some IV Morphine that the pain really started to subside. Two more paramedics came and took him to hospital in an ambulance and I followed behind in the car, shaking with fear and crying and wondering what was going to happen. By the time I got to the hospital his pain was much better and he was in bed. He was unrecognisable from the person who'd been screaming our house down an hour or so earlier. The doctor came and to, him to stagger his pain relief, I said I wouldn't take him home unless they gave him something else as the pain relief they had given him was simply not working. Eventually they agreed to give him one more Naproxen and some Tramadol, We were sent home again wondering what would happen next. We both napped when we got back, me in bed him sat up still not feeling like he could get into bed. I dreamt the whole time wondering what was happening.
Sunday
Sunday came and went, we watched tv, he had moments of pain but things seemed to be getting better though I didn't dare believe it. I got every cushion and pillow in the house and put them on his side of the bed and propped him up and on Sunday night he finally got into bed and slept there for the whole night.
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